Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

An Auckland charity is aiming to address what it calls a significant and ongoing gap in eye care for children.

The Painga Project aims to put 7000 pairs of glasses on the faces of children in high equity index schools each year, through its purpose-built mobile optometry clinic, a mini-bus called Celia.

Celia is named after social justice advocate Celia Lashlie.

Painga Project chief executive Sarah Corson told Morning Report often children don’t realise they have any vision issues until they put on a pair of glasses.

“They don’t know that they can’t see because as children, that’s all they’ve known.

“They just think that’s how vision is. So it comes as quite a shock to them when they put on a pair of trial lenses or get their glasses and realise that this is how the world looks.”

Painga Project has screened more than 18,000 children in the past four years across high equity index primary and intermediate schools, with a quarter of those requiring a full optometry

assessment, of those children, around 80 percent go on to need glasses.

The project’s pilot also showed that 17 percent of pre-school children screened were requiring a full optometry assessment.

Corson said teachers notice the change in the students’ attitudes once their vision issues have been.

“They’re often astounded because they’ve never picked up that a child can’t actually see that well, and sometimes they’re a bit embarrassed.

“They can fully engage in their education, so they’re more settled, and especially the younger you are.

“If you’re trying to put glasses on middle aged children, they’re a bit reluctant, because they’ve learned to cope. But, seeing the look on a five-year-old’s face when they start to do their learning in class and can settle, it’s amazing.”

Celia has so far been funded through donations from organisations such as the Ted Manson Foundation, however it will need additional funding to continue.

“This is where the real impact sits. We have built the model, proven the need, and now we need partners to help us scale this so more tamariki across Aotearoa can access the care they need,” Corson said.

Celia the optometry bus cost $500,000 including the equipment and fit out. However, the aim now is to secure the $700,000 per year it costs to operate the service.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Two people have been injured, one critically, after being attacked in a public park by people they met on dating apps in Invercargill.

Southland acting Inspector Mel Robertson said a person was in critical care after being attacked on 8 May, while another sustained serious injuries in an attack in the Queen’s Park area on 10 May.

“In both incidents reported to police, it appears people are using these apps to lure people to secluded locations late at night with the intention to attack them,” she said.

“Not only are they taking advantage of people’s trust but they are planning these attacks with the intention to seriously injure these people.

“We urge anybody who is planning to meet someone from a dating app to choose a location which is public, or well-lit at night, as well as letting someone trusted know your plans and movements.”

Police were keen to hear from anyone who had information about the assaults or anyone who was in the Queens Park area between 6pm and 4am from Friday 8 May to Sunday 10 May.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Health planning helps the medical system figure out what needs were most important to New Zealanders, but ongoing budget constraints were proving challenging, a doctor says.

Good health data was key to protecting the health and safety of the community, Dr Gary Jackson from Health New Zealand’s population health team told Nine to Noon, but more investment was needed.

The population health team was made up of public health doctors, analysts, demographers and advisors and Jackson said evidence from health data could be powerful when used well.

The health system collected a lot of data, he said, and helped think about the gap between services that were being provided and services that could be provided and trying to plan around that.

He said there were always tight budgets and it was “quite a trick” to work on how you could get into the prevention space of diseases.

The data the team looked at was collected from all over the health system, he said including from patients at hospitals and laboratory test results. The data was anonymous, he said, but had an identifier so data sets could be linked together.

“[We’re] trying to paint a picture for the country about what is the most important needs, where should we be putting our efforts the most.”

Jackson said there were always a number of areas that were trying to be improved and the whole system was “running very tight”.

“[The] actual money that New Zealand public has invested in the public health system has been flat since 2010… The health system is constantly trying to live within its means while we’re still getting new technologies, new medications… life expectancy has kept increasing in that time.”

It was a “constant battle” to keep money, Jackson said, while the national public health service was protected, some of the more clinical pathways seemed to have that constant battle.

He said health planning had been “very successful” in treating people and keeping people alive, but it did create extra demand on the health system.

“If those people died they wouldn’t be using health services, so the success of the system is a success that adds to the burden.”

Jackson said there had been good evidence of impact prevention programs both with type two diabetes and weight management, along with looking at the standardised intervention rates across the country.

“We got some good data to show some of these specialist services are actually quite well spread across the country.”

But the biggest funding constraint was around data and digital, Jackson said, and he wanted to see more investment in that.

He was also worried the data was not being collected around the communities, housing and incomes of people with less means who were more likely to need health services.

Some people were avoiding health services, Jackson said, which made it hard to track.

He said the easiest way to save the health system money was by people maintaining a healthy weight, exercise and not smoking.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Police say a suspended driver reached speeds of up to 200km/h as he attempted to evade police in Auckland overnight.

The driver accelerated away from officers who signalled for his vehicle to stop near Moire Road shortly after 2am on Tuesday.

Senior Sergeant Jon Winthrop said the car was tracked by cameras along the state highway network.

“The vehicle came to a stop on Charles Prevost Drive, Manurewa after the driver observed a Police patrol vehicle deploying road spikes.”

A 21-year-old-man was taken into custody and has been served with a 28-day license suspension, and his vehicle was impounded.

The man will appear in Waitākere District Court next week facing dangerous driving charges and possession of cannabis.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand